Don’t Die Until You ‘Die Hard’
Yahoo has released a new list of 100 movies to see before you die. Taking into consideration factors like historical importance and cultural impact, the list is decidedly skewed towards pop culture. Just guess who the most represented director is. That’s right: Steven Spielberg with 5 films.
Following at 3 films are Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Billy Wilder. Francis Ford Coppola enters the group if you don’t count the first two Godfathers as one film and Peter Jackson if you do count his Lord of the Rings Trilogy as three. His final installment, The Return of the King (2003) has the honor of being the most recent film on the list.
Nosferatu (1922), directed by F.W. Murnau, is the oldest title on the list which speaks to the popular staying power of the Vampire genre (see Twilight, Let the Right One In).
Comedy is well represented by my count of 15 ranging from Duck Soup to Ground Hog Day. As for animation: not so much. And even musicals are hard to find.
Yahoo’s list is in alphabetical order, thereby avoiding nasty arguments about what’s better than what. It also includes a bit of interaction where rolling over certain titles reveals a ‘Why You Should See It’ pop up. For the most part, I found these review snippets less compelling than the fact that the movies are on the list to begin with. That would be with the exception of Die Hard which opens with an understated “Because it’s awesome.” This of course captures the essence of why we love movies. Yippee ki yay, indeed.
